The separate wiring loom for the starter solenoid relay was sent off to Autosparks so they could have a look and use it as a pattern to make up a new loom.
In the meantime, I’d posted my wiring dilemma on the E-Type forum to see if others could shed light on the relay wiring. A fellow S2 owner kindly pointed out that there was a change to this area of the wiring during the S2 production run. As it happens, at exactly the same time my car was passing through the factory. I guess that it hadn’t been reflected in the service manuals because the modification had been made mid-production run.
Around the end of ’69, a ballast resistor was introduced into the ignition circuit with the aim of improving cold starting. The original 3 ohm coil was replaced by a ballast resistor and coil wired in series, both being around 1.5 ohms. When the ignition switch is turned to start the engine, the starter relay activates, delivering power to the starter solenoid but also bypassing the ballast resistor.
Therefore when starting, the full 12 volts is applied to the coil. The spark energy is increased over the original setup as the current flowing into the coil is greater due to the lower coil resistance.
Once running, the ballast resistor is introduced back into the circuit. As the coil and ballast resistor have a similar impedance of around 1.5 ohms, the voltage drop across each is roughly the same. Therefore a voltage of 6v is applied to the coil during normal running.
I found the wiring diagram above on one of the American Jaguar sites which shows the wiring connections for ballasted cars. Autosparks also confirmed that they stock this ‘ballast resistor’ loom. Although I think I’ll get the car running before I cut and tape the unused wires in the main loom!
It was a good opportunity to get Autosparks to make up the additional wiring, using the correct colour coding, that I needed for the few upgrades I’d planned – the mechanical brake light switch to supplement the hydraulic switch and the boot light.
There was also a number of wires that I believe are missing from the sundries wiring pack, such as earthing wires for the rear light clusters and a beefier jumper wire between the two brown fuses. Touch wood, I’ve now got everything to complete the wiring.
Alas, it was again a case of one step forward and two back. Very early on in the work on the bodyshell, the LH outer pedal side panel had been replaced where the main loom comes out behind the voltage regulator bracket. The panel was from one of the main suppliers of panels so I foolishly assumed it would be spot on.
It was only once I came to fit the voltage regulator bracket that I found out that its mounting holes had been punched in the wrong place. They were about 5-6mm too close to the sill closing panel so that the bracket doesn’t fit. The bracket did change for the S2 cars so it might be that the panel also changed and I was supplied the wrong part.
Either way – not happy! I should have checked it well before it had reached the paint shop. It’s not the end of the world but it will always niggle me as I’ll know it’s not correct on the car. The annoying thing was I’d spent ages sourcing and refurbishing a replacement bracket, as the studs on the original had all sheared trying to remove it.
The first replacement was purchased from SNG but the fitting was incorrect, using bolts rather than attached studs. Some time later, I managed to get a rather tatty one on eBay which was covered in a mixture of black and green paint. It took several applications of Nitromors and wire brushing before it was good enough to be re-plated.
The problem I find with zinc plating is it’s too blingy (although I’m sure the brightness would dull slightly once exposed to the elements). I decided to experiment and sprayed it with a two-pack clear satin lacquer. The results were even better than I had hoped/expected. The satin finish obviously tones down the brightness but it also has a softer, smoother to the touch feel and a more uniform metallic finish.
After all that effort I didn’t really want to start butchering a perfectly good original part to fit. instead I planned to trim the original bracket to fit and then repair the welded studs but SNG Barratt now supply the brackets with the correct studs relatively cheaply. So I’ll adapt one of their repro parts rather than an original part.
I think I’ll also spray most of the plated parts in the engine bay with the clear satin lacquer. Hopefully it will also provide a more durable finish.
The relay connections on the new loom end close to the join between the dash loom and the RHS body loom, circled in Red in the photo. The ends are terminated with female spade connectors suggesting the relay is attached at this point.
The relay was connected via its own separate loom, which also appears to be original (right). The routing of the White/Red and Brown wires, cut in the original dash loom, is directly between the bulkhead relay and the starter motor, ie doesn’t enter the dash area.
The fuel tank has been another area that hasn’t gone as smoothly as I had expected. At first glance the tank appeared to be fine however the problems were only revealed once it had been removed.
As luck would have it, there was an advert in a Jaguar magazine for an unused later S2 fuel tank. The S1 owner had purchased the tank unaware that the design had changed from a single breather pipe to three from chassis number 1R1393, some 28 cars before mine! In fact I wasn’t aware of a difference until I’d read his advert.
I then switched to Por-Strip which was better but didn’t reach much of the internal baffle surfaces. I needed a new approach.
The first task was to work out the difference between the four internal pipes in the expansion tank. I used a length of garden wire with the end bent over to form a hook. This enabled the wire to be jiggled so that the hook engaged with the end of the pipe inside the tank and therefore could determine the internal length of the pipe.
I would therefore expect B & C to be connected to pipes which would normally only be submerged in fuel when the tank is full, ie terminating at the very top of the fuel tank. It was now time to get the USB borescope out to investigate the fuel tank as ends of the pipes are hidden due to the internal baffles. 
The Koolmat instructions suggest starting the installation with the toe box and then work backwards. I decided to do the two panels under the seats first, rather than dive straight in, as I’d not used the ALPHABOND AF178 high temperature contact adhesive before. This would provide a few easy panels to become familiar working with the adhesive before having to assume contortionist positions to install the toe box area.
The dash heater controls operate plastic vent outlets on the underside of the dash, one in each footwell. When the vent is open, the air follows the passage of least resistance into the footwells. By closing the vent, this path is blocked and therefore the air is forced to exit via the dashtop windscreen vents.
Somehow the central vane of one of the vents has either been misplaced or lost during the constant sifting through the boxes of parts. Unfortunately the vents seem to be unique to the Series 2 and, as far as I’m aware, are not available any more.
A order was placed with 
The Room Temperature Vulcanizing (RTV) silicone normally cures in around 4 hours although I left it overnight as a precaution as it still felt tacky after 4 hours, probably due to the cold weather. The mould housing can then be turned over so the clay can be removed, to reveal the first half of the silicone mould with the clay indentations now appearing as small peaks.
Traces of residual clay were removed by wiping with a damped cloth to prepare for the making of the second half of the mould. Once dry, the first half of the mould was lightly brushed with Vaseline, diluted in white spirit.
MB Fibreglass Supplies were again helpful and thought the cure process had probably been compromised, most likely caused by having insufficient temperature in the component liquids when they were mixed.
The photo shows the difference in the bend radius between the two pipes. The tighter bend in the MkIII version means the pipe is perpendicular where it passes through the flange.
